Following the enormous success achieved by bionic ears in returning hearing to profoundly deaf people, interest has now turned to developing a bionic eye that will return sight to the blind.
The eye operates by focussing tight onto the retina which in turn passes signals to the brain, via the optic nerve, where they are processed to provide sight. Partial or total blindness can be caused by damage or malfunction of any of the elements in the chain from eye to brain. However, many common forms of blindness results from damage to the retina, for instance macular degeneration leads to deterioration in the cells of the fovea, causing a blind spot in the centre of the field of vision; but leaving the peripheral vision intact. The idea behind the bionic eye is to artificially stimulate the retina using an electrode array implanted on top of it. Other visual aids, such as vision spectacles stimulate the retina using light but control the images presented before the user.
Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles or the like which has been included in the present specification is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention as it existed before the priority date of each claim of this application.
Throughout this specification the word “comprise”, or variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps.